10-23-2010, 08:37 AM | #11 | ||||
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: [Space] Baseline Universe
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Really though, if you run it very long, you are probably going to end up with aliens - they're too much a part of the expected themes of SF games to escape it - sooner or later you, or your players, will want to do a story that requires them. And player expectations do matter to this stuff - I eventually caved in on human psi powers for that, and it probably added to the fun. Quote:
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I did that so I could have the first few colony worlds isolated long enough to have unique cultures. If I were doing it again I might go with a shorter timeframe and something else to do that. I've rather admired technobabble that does this with the earliest hyperdrives not having quite correctly solved the time-like component and some of the early colonies jumping into the distant past. Of course this does mean you need a usual horrible disaster to attempting that to explain why people don't do it in purpose.
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10-23-2010, 08:40 AM | #12 | |||||
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Jeffersonville, Ind.
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Re: [Space] Baseline Universe
I tend to TL11^ with somewhere between "safe tech" and interstellar bio/cyberpunk.
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STL, either reactionless or a highly efficient reaction drive, like Total Conversion, where fuel is more of a plot device than anything the PCs worry about. I tend to require fuel tankage, even if the ship wouldn't otherwise require it or even consume fuel in game-time for plot purposes, too. Also, I limit high-speed STL to smaller ships and FTL to larger ones. Quote:
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Additional: I have personal weapons either be "pew pew ray guns" (i.e. assorted energy weapons) or the Firefly style of conventional guns in space. Spaceship weapons tend to be themed toward the interstellar nation using them, so one nation might favor particle beams, another lasers, another conventional/EM/Grav guns and yet another prefers volleys of missiles. Fighters often use modular designs and the pilot can choose the load out they prefer before flight. I draw from Elizabeth Moon's Vatta's War idea of "sealed units" for various parts. The crew doesn't fix certain parts, they simply replace them outright, which remarkably fits how lots of people view repair work. (When I fixed a bad fuel pump recently I just replace it rather than took it apart, rewound the motor, replaced a bearing, etc.) For space traders I like to use brutal realism with docking fees, consumables, non-PC crew pay, etc. For combat heavy games I go between "real-world" military briefings and formality and space opera realism. Now with all that said I have an idea with TL10^ where the super science is mostly FTL and its otherwise pretty hard sci-fi with ships using external radiators, stealth is king and ship to ship combat is more The Hunt for Red October than Star Trek.
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Last edited by panton41; 10-23-2010 at 08:52 AM. |
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10-23-2010, 09:05 AM | #13 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Credit River Township, MN
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Re: [Space] Baseline Universe
[QUOTE=David Johnston2;1067178]Suppose you were going to run an (interstellar) Space game. Or in fact are.
I would run a facsimile of the background used in the GURPS Ultra Tech chapter lead-ins.... it's pretty high and has super science. Intriguing for GMs to handle the unique issues a super science society makes (Sentient AIs, backpack antimatter bombs, cloning). What would your Tech Level be? That would be 12^ Would you have spacefaring alien rivals to humanity or just genetic variants of humanity? Aliens aplenty What would be your preferred propulsion model? Some fast FTL model or jump gate system to facilitate rapid transit over massive interstellar and intergalactic distances. If sped of communication limited to speed of transit (and the transit is relatively slow, you would have Traveller's Imperium). How far in the future would it be? Far enough to "justify" super science and societal change. Why would be good. Lots of options for players and thought-provoking for player and GM alike. How much of the issues we see in the world today would be different as a result of super science at a high tech? What new issues arise? Even wars will be fought differently when the possibility of vehicles with conversion beams or troops with disintegrators are considered[/ Last edited by ImperialOne; 10-23-2010 at 09:12 AM. |
10-23-2010, 10:49 AM | #14 | ||
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Hamilton, Ont. CANADA
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Re: [Space] Baseline Universe
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As a long time fan of Babylon 5 I've always been fascinated by their "Jumpgate" technology, which in GURPS terms most closely resembles a Jump Gate described on page 19 of GURPS Spaceships. The main differences between GURPS and Babylon 5 hyperspace seem to be;
As the above characteristics seemed to make dramatic sense in Babylon 5, I decided to incorporate some of them in my personal hyperspace rule set, with a few variations.
Hyperjump Rules The general characteristics of Stardrives and Jump Gates used in this setting are as follows:
"Breakout" occurred in the middle of the 21st century when the development of Rotary Reactionless Drive led to the discovery of hyperspace and the construction of the first Hypergate Station. I'm thinking of using the attempted invention of a "radiation screen" (modelled as a "drive field" effect of the thrusters) as the new starting point to my Hyperverse tech sequence (radiation screen => hyperdynamic field grid => rotary reactionless drive => "hypersink" cloaking => jump gate to hyperspace => hyperjump stardrive). If anyone is interested, I can post a more detailed timeline later. ;) Dalton "who has a few ships on the drawing board" Spence Last edited by DaltonS; 11-01-2010 at 11:23 AM. Reason: Added a few details |
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10-23-2010, 11:02 AM | #15 | |
"Gimme 18 minutes . . ."
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Albuquerque, NM
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Re: [Space] Baseline Universe
TL10, with some experimental TL 11 stuff. Superscience limited to FTL. Some alien races would have fully developed TL 11 in limited fields, and there'd be TL 12 precursor relics scattered around.
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Reaction drives for in-system, jump gates for instantaneous FTL between heavily industrialized systems, and slower (but still FTL) warp drives that don't work too close to large gravitational fields for exploration. An undetermined amount. Humanity would be recovering from a dark age, stumbling across relics of a previous age of human exploration, as well as mysterious precursor artifacts. Last edited by Crakkerjakk; 10-23-2010 at 11:06 AM. |
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10-23-2010, 12:05 PM | #16 | ||
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: The plutonium rich regions of Washington State
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Re: [Space] Baseline Universe
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And there will also be genetically modified humans. And uplifted animals. Most of the travel takes place along the primary wormhole network, which due to causality constrains forms a branching tree-like structure with a world at each node. Travel along the network involves taking a tram-line or just walking through the wormholes. To get the wormholes in place, use a linac for the initial launch, then steer them with a high powered laser as a photon rocket, and aerobrake them at the destination. In some sense, the wormhole is the spacecraft, you just get to leave all the crew and equipment back home. In the far reaches of human expansion, it is difficult to go all the way down the wormhole network to the root note and then back up to travel to someplace that is relatively nearby. To prevent causality violations (which are bad) you could connect the two nearby places with a wormhole, but you need to keep a large separation between the wormholes - an interplanetary separation. To get between planets that cut across the network in this fashion, you would take a laser lift launch or beanstalk elevator ride, then catch a fusion pulse "torch" drive to the outer regions of the solar system where the wormhole waits. Pass through the wormhole, and into the outer reaches of your destination solar system. Rocket in to orbit around the destination planet and take a beanstalk ride or re-entry shuttle back down. I would primarily focus on planetary action, rather than space opera, so the method of propulsion is more background color. Indeterminate. After the collapse of the Terran Empire, the far flung outposts of man are picking themselves back up and starting to explore again. This lets me have a setting where the major players can be powerful developed worlds in their own right, rather than an earth hegemony over developing colonies. Luke |
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10-23-2010, 12:08 PM | #17 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: [Space] Baseline Universe
I think the idea of a higher tech precursor race has been done to death.
I would like to play a paleo-xenologist studying lower tech remains... with the occasional, "why didn't we think of that" oddity. |
10-23-2010, 12:12 PM | #18 |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: [Space] Baseline Universe
I'd go with TL12^. Hey, I bought GURPS Ultra-Tech, I might as well get my money's worth. When else am I gonna use all those toys?
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10-23-2010, 12:15 PM | #19 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: [Space] Baseline Universe
Absolutely. Just because one society in the campaign has that, doesn't mean you can't play an impoverished primitive just barely eking out a living with only Star Trek the next generation technology. ;)
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10-23-2010, 12:25 PM | #20 |
"Gimme 18 minutes . . ."
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Albuquerque, NM
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Re: [Space] Baseline Universe
Meh, tropes and cliches only become so because they're effective shorthand and thematic tools. Course, my precursor races wouldn't have created other intelligent races, they'd just leave behind TL 12^ artifacts and the occasional death trap.
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